December 15, 2006

December 11, 2006

Mad Mel's movie 'Apocalypto' opens at #1 Mel Gibson said he didn't mean to offend any of those Mayas by making them out to be savages in the movie, he said he was drunk all the time he was making the movie!

November 20, 2006

Indian Country Diaries is an interesting film that is currently playing on PBS.
Our tribal chairperson Tracy Stanhoff is in the film, it was when she
was the President of the American Indian Chamber of Commence out in
California. It also showed her teeing off in a golf tournment...that
drive she made looked better than about 99% of the shots I have made. I
get up on that first tee and I have no idea where that golf ball is
going when I hit it!

October 21, 2006

Yesterday I went with my wife and my son to the movie Flags of our Fathers and in that movie Adam Beach gave one great performance as Ira Hayes. What stood out about that movie was the racist language used toward Ira Hayes through out the movie! Many Native American soldiers have experienced this treatment in every war we have had!

I am not saying I was the exception, but aside from some comment about Indians and Alcatraz when I first went to Vietnam, I didn't face that kinda of racism in the year I was in Vietnam or in the two years I was stationed in Germany. I didn't face racism until I got out of the service! Several years ago I grew tired of this and I wanted people to leave me alone, so I took my orders for my Purple Heart to city hall and got Purple Heart tags for my car, and now people leave me alone! That in itself is pretty dam sad!

June 13, 2006

I ordered Trudell-The Movie last week. It came in the mail yesterday, so I had a private screening of the film. The wife and I were the first ones on our block to watch the film on DVD. The movie was worth every penny I shelled out for it!

John Trudell is an outstanding native poet who deserves all the success he can get from his films and CDs. The film covers his life from his rez days in Nebraska, to his going into the Navy and serving two tours of duty in Vietnam, to his involvement in the American Indian Movement (in the over 17,000 pages the government has on him, there is a FBI memo that states "He is extremely eloquent...therefore extremely dangerous") the film covers the death of his five family members in Nevada and how he then put his poetry to music to cope with his loss.

The film ends with Kris Kristofferson singing an outstanding song he wrote about John Trudell. The song is called "Johnny Lobo" and the lyrics to the song are below.

Johnny Lobo

Once upon a dusty reservation...Somewhere in the land of Sitting Bull... Johnny Lobo played with fire and dreamed of open spaces...Locked inside a heaven gone to hell...All the dreams were gone but not forgetten...Murdered like the holy buffalo...But Johnny Lobo knew the rules and grew into a warrior...fighting for his people and his soul

Chorus: Oh.....Johnny Lobo/Oh......Oh Johnny Lobo

Loaded down with lessons that he carried...Home from Viet Nam to Wounded Knee...Johnny Lobo burned a flag he knew had been dishonored...Paid the price for thinking he was free...Someone set his house on fire, burned it to the ground...With his wife and children locked inside...Later when the bitter tears were falling to the ashes...Something good in Johnny Lobo died

Chorus: Oh...Johnny Lobo/Oh......Johnny Lobo

In a darkened corner of a tavern...Burning down old memories again...Johnny Lobo stares into the smoke and dreams of clouds...Running like wild horses with the wind...Holy Phoenix rising from the ashes...Into the circle of the sun...Johnny Lobo's warrior heart was burnished in the embers...And the battle's just begun.